Part I

Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 June 2019

Edited by

Philip L. Reynolds

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Philip L. Reynolds: Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta

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Summary

Christian leaders and scholars during the first millennium in the West were preoccupied with written norms and corrective practices. Law (lex) during this era needs to be understood in a broader normative context. This introductory chapter provides historical and historiographical background to the specialized chapters that follow, explores the notions of lex, ius, norma, regula, and canon, and proposes an overarching schema of four normative fields, as understood by authors of the period: laws, canons, penitential prescriptions, and monastic rules, with their corresponding normative practices and textual compilations. The legal status of conciliar canons and papal decretals during this era is problematic. Although scholars today usually construe these as constituting a body of law, Isidore of Seville did not, and authors of the era usually treated laws (leges) and canons as distinct but complementary categories. The final section of the chapter examines this problem, proposing several fields of inquiry that would shed light on it, and suggesting that canonical collections, as a genre, were practical but not attached to any particular application.

Keywords

normativity, performative, law, ius, penance, monastic rules, councils, canons, decretals, canonical collections Roman, codes, Constantine, episcopalis audentia, handbooks, pluralism, law, ius, Theodosius II, Justinian successor kingdoms, Roman law, Germanic law, “Germanic,” codes, Merovingian, placita, diplomata, formulae, inquest councils, synods, canons, bishops, Cyprian of Carthage, Nicaea, Toledo, Gaul, Franks, Caesarius of Arles papacy, popes, papal supremacy, Rome, episcopacy, St. Peter, decretals, papal patrimony Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, sacred palace, ecclesia, public penance, royal ministry, scandal Apostolic Canons, canonical collections, Dionysiana, Hibernensis, penitentials, Vetus Gallica penance, penitentials, confession, canonical collections, bishops, monks, lay religion, public penance, private penance monasticism, rules, Rule of Benedict, normativity, Pachomius, Caesarius, Columbanus, Benedict of Nursia, Benedict of Aniane

Type: Chapter
Information: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium , pp. 1 - 236

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2019

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References

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Book contents

Part I

Summary

Keywords

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References

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